


the stars can wait for your ascent

by demonicneonfishy



Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [16]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Broken Bones, Gen, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Needs a Hug, Post-Canon, discussions of mortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29493576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonicneonfishy/pseuds/demonicneonfishy
Summary: Mortality has given her a new insight on how much things can hurt when the pain actually lasts.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141784
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51





	the stars can wait for your ascent

**Author's Note:**

> day 16 of febuwhump 2021  
> prompt: broken bones  
> (title from goodnight, travel well - the killers)  
> this is a spiritual successor to "stay, don't leave me" but can be read on its own!

It happens like this: Andy breaks her arm while sparring with Nile.

It’s not Nile’s fault. She falls and lands badly. An injury she’s had a million times before.

Except, now, everything is different, and the bone doesn’t heal.

“Shit,” Nile says, crouching down beside her. “Are you okay?”

“Broken, I think,” Andy responds through gritted teeth. “Get Nicky.”

“We need to get you to a hospital-”

“Just get Nicky, please.”

Nile runs inside, and Andy takes a deep breath. Mortality has given her a new insight on how much things can _hurt_ when the pain actually lasts.

A few moments later, Nile returns, closely followed by Nicky.

“What happened?” he asks, dropping to his knees beside her. 

“Fell,” Andy says shortly. “I think it’s broken.”

Nicky examines her arm carefully. She winces at the movement, and he mutters a quiet apology. “I can help, maybe, but it will heal better if we go to a hospital. I have not had training in fifty years.”

“No hospitals,” Andy says. 

“We have been to hospitals before. Copley gave us new fake identities. We run very little risk, and you are injured.”

There’s no arguing with him when he’s like this, and so Andy concedes, letting him and Nile help her to her feet.

Nicky puts her arm in a sling and drives her to the hospital in silence, gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turn white.

“What’s my name again?” she asks as they turn into the hospital parking lot. 

“Andrea Black,” Nicky reminds her. 

The name sounds vaguely familiar. “Haven’t we used that one before?”

“Alexandra Black. In the seventies, I think.” Long enough ago that it won’t be a problem.

“And you’re…”

“Nicholas Smith.”

Nicky pulls into a parking spot miraculously close to the building and turns off the engine, but doesn’t get out straight away.

“Nico,” she says softly, and he looks at her. She hasn’t called him that in a long time. “It was an accident. You know that, right?”

He nods, and she smiles. 

Then he gets out of the car.

* * *

“It’s a clean break,” the doctor says. “You’ll be in a cast for a little while, but it’ll heal.”

Andy nods.

“Now, if you could just wait here for a moment, I’ll be right back, and then we’ll get the cast on.”

With that, the doctor exits, leaving her and Nicky alone.

“Well, at least I don’t need surgery,” she jokes, trying to lighten the mood, and Nicky _flinches_.

She realises, then, that it’s the first time she’s gotten injured since her gunshot wound had healed.

She reaches over with her good arm to take his hand. “Nico, look at me. It’s nothing major, just a broken arm, okay?”

Nicky nods but doesn’t look at her. She’s about to say something else, but then the doctor returns.

A little while later, they walk out of the hospital with Andy’s arm in a plaster cast. The weight of it is already starting to annoy her. 

They get into the car, but Nicky doesn’t start the engine straight away.

“What is it?” she asks.

There are tears in his eyes when he looks at her, and- _oh_.

“I know what I said to Merrick,” Nicky begins, a little shakily. “In the lab. About it being your time, but… today was the first time you got hurt since it had happened, and I wondered if maybe…”

“It was just a fluke,” she finishes.

Nicky nods. “I know it’s selfish, but- but I’m not ready. To lose you.”

She reaches over to touch his shoulder. “We have time, Nico,” she says gently. “I’m not going away any time soon.”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“We’ve never known that for sure,” she reminds him. “Now we just have a little warning. And in time you’ll adjust to- to being without me, and…” She doesn’t know what to say, how to tell him it’ll be okay. 

She doesn’t want to leave him.

“I don’t want to adjust. I don’t know how to be without you.”

She tries to smile. “You and Joe didn’t meet us for at least a century.”

Nicky manages to smile a little at that, and she’ll count it as a victory.

“We still have time,” she repeats. “And you’ll be okay, I promise.”

Nicky blinks away his tears and nods.

“Let’s go home,” she says. “You can draw on these cast things, right? Joe’s going to have a field day.”

Nicky lets out a shaky laugh, and she smiles at the sound. 

He starts the engine, and they drive home. 

**Author's Note:**

> i have never broken a bone so apologies for any inaccuracies in that area please ignore them  
> -  
> i'm demonicneonfishy on tumblr too if you wanna come say hi!! (or yell at me for the angst)


End file.
